USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > History of the town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890 > Part 1
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HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF WESTON
MASSACHUSETTS
1630-1890
BY
COL. DANIEL S. LAMSON
Go 974.402 W53918 1222037
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLI ECTION
-
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01065 9784
0
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
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16
Danty Lawson
HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF WESTON
MASSACHUSETTS
1630-1890
BY COL. DANIEL S. LAMSON
BOSTON PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO.
1913
Elus Back Cs. - $5.00
1222037 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGIN OF THE TOWN 1
II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND MILITARY ORGANIZATION 18
III. CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION AND FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 27
IV. THE OLD TOWN RECORDS 39
V. THRIFTY FINANCE OF YE FATHERS (RATES, TAXES,
BOUNTIES, ETC.) 56
VI. WESTON IN THE REVOLUTION 67
VII. IN THE WAKE OF THE REVOLUTION 102
VIII. A RECORD OF FORTY QUIET YEARS 118
IX. THE STORY OF THE TOWN FROM YEAR TO YEAR 130
X. WAR VETERANS, RAILROADS, ETC. 137
XI. BUSINESS INTERESTS OF THE TOWN 152
XII. SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS . 165
XIII. EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IN WESTON 173
XIV. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 182
XV. THE TAVERNS 186
APPENDICES.
I. REV. SAMUEL KENDAL'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 195
II. REV. JOSEPH FIELD'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE 197
III. SEATING THE MEETING-HOUSE 201
IV. TOWN CLERKS 202
V. TOWN TREASURERS 203
VI. REPRESENTATIVES 204
VII. SELECTMEN . 206
VIII. THE SEPARATION FROM WATERTOWN AS A PRECINCT 210
IX. LOCATION AND PRESENT OWNERSHIP OF HISTORIC BUILD- INGS AND PLACES MENTIONED IN THIS HISTORY 212
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
It is scarcely a debatable question, in the opinion of the writer of these lines, as to whether this or any other town history is worth writing and publishing. The story of any town is worth telling, and the story of any man's life is worth narrating, either briefly or at length. So, when requested to edit this History of the Town of Weston by the late Colonel Daniel S. Lamson, I was glad to address myself to the task of getting the manuscript into shape and seeing it through the press. In these annals of a quiet neighborhood and these outlines of homely but strong and sturdy lives, the good colonel has limned for us, with praiseworthy toil and zeal, many a pleasant little sketch of scenes in the past life of Weston. His work is meritorious for its graphic anecdotes, its annals of the church and of the town meetings, and especially for its full account of Weston in the Revolution, and for its pro- nounced patriotic tone throughout.
Such features of the work as the description of the grand wagon- freight routes from the North to the South along the coast and paralleling the Alleghany Range in the days before railroads; of the farmer-lads' wagon-freighting of wood to Boston from far New Hampshire and Vermont; or of the great trunk stage-road between Boston and New York which passed through Weston, the logical results thereof being visits to the town by Presidents Washington and Adams, events upon which the citizens prided themselves not a little,-these things, including minute accounts of the schools and of the business enterprises of the community, are interesting reading and cheer one's way through the dryer details. I take it that the latter are not intended for consecu- tive reading at all, but for consultation or peeping into on rainy days when the mood serves. In other words, a town history is, to a large extent at least, a reference book, however interesting it may be.
And how, then, do our ancestors look to us? What is the verdict on them? For my part, aside from that matter of offering
vi
PREFACE
a bounty for the destruction of crows, jays, and red-winged blackbirds (see Chapter V.), I find little or nothing in the history of Weston and its inhabitants in which we may not take pride. They had perhaps a little too close a grip on the gear, which is the familiar New England trait. But in that matter of the birds they were not at all to blame, because a fuller knowledge had not yet taught them that the birds put vastly more into one's pocket- book than they take out.
It would require a Velasquez or a Carlyle to give us an immortal portrait gallery of the men and women of early days, for they had strong and heroic lineaments and were worthy of the most gifted pen and pencil. And yet what finer characters can you find in the annals of New England than those of the early ministers of this parish as depicted by Lamson, Russell, Hornbrooke, and Putnam, and other writers on the church and town? And who can do full justice to the plain homespun lives of the laity? We all know them,-those sturdy, God-fearing, rugged-featured, strong-willed farmers and merchants; those patient, sweet-souled New England mothers. They are nearly an extinct race now. But, having known and respected them, we think the greatest genius in the world could hardly have chronicled worthily their lives.
I happen to have just been reading the story of a community as different from that of Weston, Massachusetts, as it is possible to conceive,-the story of the Italian hill-town Perugia. There is a terrible fascination in the blood-bespattered annals of its two thousand years of struggle and war, the insane feuds of its rival families, its Baglioni and its Oddi, the endless pageants, rejoicings, wailings, slaughters, and conflagrations of the turbulent popu- lace and nobility, and a nameless charm, too, in the environing landscape of the warm Southland, where, alas! ever "the tender red roses of the hedges tossed above the helmets and glowed between the lowered lances," and the foliage of the trees waved in the twilight "only to show the flames of burning cities on the horizon through the tracery of their stems," and the "twisted olive trunks hid only the ambushes of treachery." Well, out of all that internecine passion and pain and splendid war there has resulted to the weal of mankind only a few great paintings and
vii
PREFACE
a massive and picturesque mediaval city still standing to shelter its inhabitants and give pleasure to tourists. Good art may have been in the past the concomitant or resultant of war. But it is not necessarily so. Again, there is something greater than art in the world, and that is noble character developed through the quiet, peaceful work of useful lives built into the fibre of the race. For my part I am prouder to be descended, as I am, from such plain Scotch-English stock as produced a Carlyle and a Lincoln than if I were sprung from the proudest high-stomached steel-clad brabbler lord of the Middle Age or any age. And so, doubtless, are the citizens of the fair and fertile hill-town of Massachusetts, the story of which is told in this volume.
As to the accuracy of Colonel Lamson's History of Weston, all has been done that could be done to authenticate and correct the data without expending upon them an amount of research that would have been almost equivalent to rewriting the whole book. The proofs have passed under the critical eye of several persons. The transcript of the Act of Incorporation of the town (see page 18) has been, with scrupulous care, collated with the crumbling old record of Acts and Resolves in the State House at Boston, and other similar collations have been made, while in Appendix VIII. is given a transcript from the State Records of the legislative Resolve setting off the town as a precinct. It may also be stated that, although Colonel Lamson's chronicle of the town's history ended with the year 1890, yet in a number of instances we have added statistics that bring the record down to 1910 and 1912.
Finally, the editor cannot but express his regret that Colonel Lamson himself had not lived to see his work through the press. For we all feel that he would have afforded no exception to the well-known law that the turning of manuscript into the printed page is always accompanied by innumerable corrections and bet- terments. We have done our best to do this work for him. The task was not altogether an easy one. Hence over our short- comings would it be too much to ask that kindly charity draw the veil of silence? W. S. K.
BELMONT, MASS., February 24, 1913.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF WESTON
I.
ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGIN OF THE TOWN.
1630-1712.
At the second Court of Assistants, held at Charlestown, Septem- ber 7, 1630, it was ordered "That Trimount be called Boston; Matapan should be called Dorchester; and the town upon Charles River, Watertown" (Prince's Chronological History of New England, pp. 248, 249).
The exact period when what is called Weston began to be settled is not known. It must have been at an early period of the Watertown settlement, for there are still standing houses or parts of houses which were erected a hundred and fifty years ago. June 26, 1637, "A grant of the remote or West Pine Meadows were divided and alloted out to all the Townsmen then inhabiting Watertown, being 114 in number, allowing one acre for each person, and likewise for cattle, valued at £20 the head, beginning next the Plain meadow, and to go on until lots are ended" (Watertown Records). These meadows were prob- ably in the south and south-eastern part of Weston. In July, 1638, it was ordered
that all the land lying beyond the Plowlands [lots in the further plain] and the lots granted extending west of Stoney Brook, having the great dividents on the one side [north] and Charles River and Dedham bounds on the other side [south], and the Farm lands at the further end [west] of it, shall be for a common for cattle, to the use of the Freemen of the Town and their heirs forever, and not to be alienated without the con- sent of every freeman and their heirs forever.
This is the first instance upon record where the term "Farm lands" is applied to Weston. The earliest proprietors of land in
2
HISTORY OF WESTON
.
Weston in 1642 are Bryan Pendleton, Daniel Pattrick, Simon Eire, John Stowers, Abraham Browne, John Whitney, Edward How, Jeremiah Norcross, and Thomas Mayhew. From 1647 to 1663 there was much dissatisfaction and contention about the early allotments of the Remote Meadows in Lieu of Township, and of the Farm Lands; and in 1663 this portion of the town was resur- veyed and plotted by Captain John Sherman. It contained 1,102 acres, bounded on the south by Dedham, west by Natick and Sudbury, and on the other side by the Farm Lands. This district is frequently referred to in early deeds as "the land of Contention."
In ecclesiastical affairs what is now Weston was connected with Watertown about sixty-eight years, and in civil concerns about eighty-three years .* The inhabitants of the Farms, and those in the remote westerly part of Watertown, went to worship in the easterly part of Watertown, at a house situated in the vicinity of the old burying-place. The first church in Massachusetts was planted at Salem; the second, at Charlestown, including Boston; the third, at Dorchester; the fourth, at Roxbury; the fifth, at Lynn; and the sixth, at Watertown. On July 30, 1630, at Water- town, forty men subscribed a church covenant, and from that date seem to have been considered a distinct church. It would appear from Governor Winthrop's Journal that the Watertown church had a prior existence to the one at Charlestown, and was second only to that at Salem.
In 1692 began the contention in Watertown growing out of the location of the new meeting-house considered "most convenient to the bulk of the inhabitants." There was great opposition to a
* A history of Weston from the date of its separation from Watertown in 1698, as a dis- tinct precinct, must necessarily commence with a history of its church. There are no records of the town other than those of the church for a period of fourteen years. In the early settle- ments of New England the church was the nucleus of organization, the bond which held to- gether the scattered population of the rural districts, around which the people gathered and formed that essentially New England form of government which we call the Town Meeting. It was through the action of the town meetings that the democracy of New England was de- veloped and brought the population of the towns to take personal action in all that pertained to the common interests. They voted to levy taxes on themselves and to dispose of their own money, they kept control upon money appropriations and watched carefully their expen- diture. It was through the agency of town meetings and the public spirit they developed that the country was successfully carried through the Revolutionary War, and they became ultimately the framework of our general government. No better test of their efficiency can be found than in the successful maintenance of personal liberty and the Constitution against the assaults upon them at the time of our Civil War.
3
ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGIN OF THE TOWN
change in their place of worship, and in this dilemma the Select- men agreed to refer the matter to the governor, Sir William Phipps, and his council. This mode of bringing the disputes of a town to an issue by referring them to the chief magistrate of the State would be deemed singular at the present day, but at that early period was not uncommon. The committee appointed by the governor to take the matter into consideration consisted of William Stoughton, John Phillips, James Russell, Samuel Sewall, and Joseph Lynde. They made their report in May, 1693. The Selectmen not being satisfied with some of the provisions of the report of the committee, it was subsequently revised in 1694. The report was still unsatisfactory to the townspeople, and a protest was placed on record, signed by one hundred citizens, of which thirty-three were inhabitants of the Farmers' District, later known as Weston.
The dissensions growing out of the new meeting-house loca- tion continued for some years; and as early as 1694 that part of Watertown now known as Weston appears to have had separate interests of its own in ecclesiastical matters. On October 2, 1694, "our neighbors the farmers [the name given to the settlers west of the present boundary of Watertown] being upon endeav- ours to have a Meeting house among themselves the town consents that they may come as far as Beaver Brook, upon the road leading to Sudbury; to the end there may be peace and settlement amongst us." Beaver Brook still retains its old name to remind us of this boundary. It passes the main road at the lower part of Waltham Plain. The origin of the name will be seen in the following extract from Winthrop's Journal, under date of January 27,1632 :--
The Governor and some company with him went up Charles River, about eight miles above Watertown, and named the first brook, on the north side of the river, Beaver Brook, because the beavers had shorn down great trees there, and made divers dams across the brook. Thence they went to a great rock upon which stood a high stone, cleft asunder, that four men might go through, which they called Adam's chair, because the youngest of their company was Adam Winthrop. Thence they came to another brook, greater than the former, which they called Masters Brook, because the eldest of their company was one John Masters.
4
HISTORY OF WESTON
This is the present Stony Brook, which forms the boundary between Waltham and Weston. The high hill which Winthrop mentions west of Mount Feake is, undoubtedly, Sanderson's Hill in Weston, upon which during the Revolution the beacon light was established, Jonas Sanderson being its keeper. General Sullivan speaks of this beacon light in his Memoirs as the con- necting light, uniting his command in Rhode Island with Boston. The town of Watertown included what is now Waltham, Weston, Lincoln, and a part of Concord.
In 1697 Mr. Angier became the pastor of the West Precinct of Watertown. But as early as 1694 the inhabitants of the Farmers' Precinct, to the number of one hundred and eighteen, petitioned to be set off into a separate precinct, alleging the great distance to the church and protesting against being obliged to go so far from home. The prayer of the petitioners was not granted at once,-in fact, not until after a period of three years. Justice Sewall, who presided over the conference, states in his Diary that so great was the contention that he had to pray hard to keep the contending parties from coming to blows. Weston became a separate precinct in 1698; but on January 1, 1697, they were exempted from ministerial rates in Watertown, though not in legal form until a year later. After the incorporation of Weston in 1712 (up to which period it had been called the "westerly," "more westerly," and "most westerly" precinct of Watertown) the middle part acquired the name of the West Precinct, or Water- town West, and was incorporated as a town by the name of Waltham in 1737, or twenty-five years after the incorporation of Weston. It would seem that the inhabitants of the Farms were in earnest in their determination to be separated from Water- town, and probably feared that Watertown would not consent to the prayer of the petitioners, for in August, 1695, money was contributed by sundry persons for the purpose of preferring a petition to the General Court to that end. No record of any such petition, however, can be found. Some doubts arising about the eastern boundary of the precinct (see Appendix IX.), the General Court in May, 1699, passed an order, viz .:-
The bounds of said precinct shall extend from Charles River to Stony Brook Bridge, and from the said Bridge up the Brook Northerly
5
ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGIN OF THE TOWN
to Robert Harrington's farm; and the brook to be the Boundary; In- cluding the said Farm, and comprehending all the Farms, and Farm Lands to the lines of Cambridge and Concord; and from thence all Watertown lands to their utmost Southward and Westward Bounds.
The same bounds, in the same words, are defined in the act of incorporation of the town.
January 9, 1695, the inhabitants of what is now Weston agreed to build a meeting-house, thirty feet square, on land of Nathaniel Coolidge, Sr. In March, 1715, the deed of this land was passed to the church by Jonathan Coolidge, son of Nathaniel. This church was never completed, but services were held in it in 1700. It was styled the Farmers' Meeting-house. It was begun by sub- scription and afterwards carried on at the expense of the precinct. Meetings were held November 8 and November 15, 1698, officers of the precinct were chosen, and provision made to complete the church begun in 1695. On August 25, September 15, and Novem- ber 16, 1699, still further measures were taken to finish the meet- ing-house. February 14, 1700, the precinct voted to have a minister to preach in the meeting-house, to begin the second Sabbath of the ensuing March. Thus it appears that the small house begun in 1695 was not so far completed as to be occupied till March, 1700. On March 5, 1700, money was granted to sup- port preaching, and grants continued to be made from time to time for this purpose. A committee was chosen September 13, 1700, to apply for advice, as to the choice of a minister, to the Rev. President Mather of Harvard College. The committee con- sisted of Rev. Mr. Angier, Mr. Brattle, and Mr. Gibbs, and they were asked to make a report. Mr. Thomas Symmes was chosen, but no mention is made of him in the records. It is to be pre- sumed he declined the call. Mr. Mors would seem to have been the choice of the Precinct Committee, as in December, 1701, it was voted that Mr. Mors should continue in order for a settle- ment. July 2, 1702, they gave him a call to settle in the min- istry, the vote of the church being thirty for and twelve against him. In September, 1702, they renewed the call and granted him an annual salary, also engaging to build him a house forty by twenty feet. This house stood on the present site of the house of Deacon White. In 1704 the house was put into the possession of
6
HISTORY OF WESTON
Mr. Mors and a grant of money made to enable him to finish it. In this year difficulties arose respecting Mr. Mors's settlement in the ministry, but there is no record of what the difficulties were. In the controversy between the precinct and Mr. Mors, whatever might be the grounds of it, there appears to have been considerable irritation, and his opposers were thought to have been at fault. Mr. Mors had steadfast friends, who were zealous for his settlement; but they agreed to relinquish their object, and unite in the choice of another man, if the precinct would join in calling in mediators who would attempt a reconciliation between Mr. Mors and his opponents. Justice Sewall (Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 156), under date of March 6, 1706, speaks of a council held at the house of Mr. Willard, and they advise that after a month Mr. Joseph Mors should cease to preach at Watertown Farms. He left in the spring of 1706, and was afterwards settled in Stoughton, now Canton. A committee was appointed to treat with him for the purchase of his house and land, for the use of the ministry, but no agreement was reached until 1707, when he conveyed the prem- ises to the Precinct Committee, as will be found in Registry of Deeds, lib. 14, fol. 646. The committee consisted of Thomas Wilson, Captain Josiah Jones, Captain Francis Fullam, Lieu- tenant John Brewer. These premises were assigned to Rev. William Williams, April 28, 1714 (lib. 22, fol. 211). In 1706 the precinct was presented at the Court of Sessions for not having a settled minister. A committee was appointed to answer the presentment at Charlestown.
February 11, 1707, the precinct chose Mr. Nathaniel Gookin to be their minister, but he did not accept the call. The precinct was again presented, May 9, 1707. In June, 1707, a petition was prepared to be presented to the Court at Concord, assigning reasons for not having a settled minister. The petitioners say "once more we humbly pray that the Honourable Court would not put Mr. Joseph Mors into the work of the ministry in our precinct." They were fearful the Court would place Mr. Mors here and not by their own election. July 16, 1707, they chose Mr. Thomas Tufts, but he declined the call in September. Janu- ary 14, 1708, they agreed to keep a day of fasting and prayer. In February, 1708, the people gave Mr. William Williams a call.
7
ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGIN OF THE TOWN
Mr. Williams accepted in August, 1709, and he was ordained November 2, 1709, eleven years after the Farms had become a distinct precinct. It would appear that the church had no regular organization until 1710, when two deacons were chosen. They were Captain Josiah Jones and John Parkhurst. The mem- bership consisted of nineteen males,-nine from other churches and ten who were not communicants. The following are the names of those who gathered with the church: Nathaniel Cool- idge, Thomas Flagg, John Livermore, Francis Fullam, Abel Allen, Joseph Lowell, John Parkhurst, Ebenezer Allen, Francis Peirce.
The ten others were Joseph Jones, Thomas Wright, Joseph Allen, Josiah Jones, Jr., Joseph Woolson, Joseph Livermore, Joseph Allen, Jr., Josiah Livermore, Samuel Severns, George Robinson.
It would seem from the following that, although Mr. Williams was only ordained in November, 1709, he held a conference at his "lodgings" as early as October 12 of that year, and began at that date the organization of the church in Weston. The cove- nant then subscribed by the inhabitants who gathered with this church is so very interesting that its introduction here will not be out of place. It would also seem that twelve years after the signing of the covenant, March 12, 1721, a "Profession of Faith" was also signed by the young people of the parish, or what should properly be called a renewal of baptismal vows and promises. This last covenant is still more interesting, as it gives us an idea of the strong abiding faith which characterized our forefathers, but which in too many instances in this our day has given place to laxity and indifference in those things which our sires held in such love and veneration.
Says Mr. Williams: "October 12, 1709, was the day appointed (by the members of the Parish) to meet and confer together (at my lodgings) where they expressed their charity towards each other, and that there was no discord between them, or any thing that should hinder their Communion and fellowship. Some time was spent in reading the Confession of Faith put forth by the last Synod of churches held in Boston in New England, to which they assented, and in praying for the Divine Blessing. The covenant was read and subscribed by them all."
8
HISTORY OF WESTON
THE COVENANT.
We do under an abiding sense of our unworthiness of such a favour and unfitness for such a blessing, yet apprehending ourselves to be called of God to put ourselves into a way of Church communion, and to seek the settlement of all the Gospel Institutions among us, do therefore in order thereto, and for better promoting thereof as much as in us lies, knowing how prone we are to err, abjuring all confidence in ourselves, and relying on the Lord Jesus Christ for help, Covenant as follows :-
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